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On a night in which the Pirates made seven errors, Brett Jackson made an insane catch crashing into the wall (Alfonso Soriano had a nice one, himself), and Travis Wood dominated the Pirates, the most shocking thing might be that the Cubs actually won a game in convincing fashion.

Soriano is going to finish with over 100 RBI. With this anemic offense that is quite an accomplishment.

CubsFan4Life

Soriano could finish the season with more than 100 RBIs, 30 Home Runs, and the Gold Glove award for NL left fielders. Is Soriano a serious NL MVP candidate?

Trigger

No.

TonyP

I wouldn’t put him in that discussion, however he has had a very nice year. It’s good to see after all the negativity towards him most of the year. I would take a repeat of this year the next 2 seasons and be happy with it. Unless he becomes a block for a youngster, which I don’t see happening anyway. Most prospects that would be ready in the next 2 years I wouldn’t consider them really starters anyway. Maybe 4th or 5th outfielders.

art

lol

ssckelley

This is hilarious! The Cubs may finish with the 2nd worst record in baseball and it is suggested that Soriano wins the gold glove and is a candidate to win the MVP. Us Cub fans are the greatest. 😀

DocPeterWimsey

The MVP is out. However, many bad teams have gold-glove calibre fielders. Seattle lost 101 games in 2010 with multiple guys who would have won Gold Gloves if the award was not half Silver Slugger.

http://bleachernation loyal100more

not that i believe sori is in the conversation…but in 1987 dawson won the MVP on the last place cubs. however his numbers where quite rediculous! 285/49/147! 19 game winning rbi, and 19 outfield assists

cas-castro

We might get 80+ rbi from Castro this year too. One of the few bright spots this year. I’d take 12-15 HR and 80 rbi from him every year from him if he keeps improving his defense. Even better if he can improve obp to. 350 or better. I don’t think we have seen the best of young Starlin yet. Major kudos to B-Jax on that catch tonight. Lets hope his hitting ability catches up to his fielding.

Dingo

Cubs 3 ER
Pirates 2 ER

Close game…. :/

cubchymyst

I missed the game, did the pirates only allow 3 earned runs or was it 6. The box score hasBurnett and Takahashi with 3 earned runs but the total says 3 not 6.

Zogie

No need for an Advanced Box Score. The Box Score shows it all. Sori and Castro had big nights. Congrats on the 500 career hits, well deserving of my shout out. The only bad things I see would be DeJesus struggling on this road trip and Clevenger 7 LOB. One interesting note, I was researching a bit on fangraphs and looked up wRC+. Pretty much a stat that shows runs created for each player for 162 games. The scale shows 120 as excellent and 40 as awful. Can anyone guess where Vitters is? He has a -34 wRC+ which i did not think was possible. He is playing at an abysmal level. Valbuena has a 84 wRC+ which is above-average.

cas-castro

Good stuff, Society. What was Castro’s wRC+? I figure the good teams have a lineup full of players with wRC+ between 100-120. I think the ’84 cubs had a lineup like that. Possibly the 07-08 teams too.

cas-castro

Zogie, not society. Darn auto fill.

Zogie

Castro has a 92 wRC+. 100+ wRC+ is Great and 120+ is Excellent.

hansman1982

I thought wRC+ was similar to OPS+ where 100 = average

Lifepainter

Pat Hughes stated on the radio side that the Pirates could have had at least two more errors but the plays were called fielders choices instead. I think the Pirates might have just punted the season after tonight.

cas-castro

I heard that on the TV broadcast too.

Patrick G

Castro and Rizzo have another nice game

Josh

Sorianois is not even close to a MVP canidate due to the awfulness that is the 2012 Chicago Cubs. We saw Kemp get penalized for that last season and they were no where near as bad as the Cubs. It’s a shame he wasn’t an All-Star. He doésn’t get enough credit

mybrettjacksonhat

Was at the game tonight. Nice seats a bit past first base. My reactions:

I’ve been to PNC 60+ games in my 7 years in Pittsburgh. Great park, mediocre fans.

Travis Wood kept the Pirates off balance. Nice to see. Still, pretty clear to me that he is a back of the rotation guy.

Castro makes mistakes but I’m really glad he is locked up. Rizzo has work to do but again, glad he is in the fold. Seeing them close up is pretty impressive.

Cabrera seemed a little stiff to me. Like a guy still trying to get a feel for being in the majors. Might be wrong, but he did not seem like he feels comfortable on the mound yet.

Watching the opposing team make 7 errors is fun.

Missed the Soriano catch taking my kids for a treat. The Brett Jackson catch was amazing. McCutchen swings hard and really hit that one. No way I thought Brett had a chance. Wow. All I can say. Plus, it was really cool to see everyone run out immediately to check on him. Makes me think his teammates are pretty fond of him. Won’t be a star but I think he will be a pretty decent player when all is said and done.

Mediocre seats tomorrow night (fireworks show after the game essentially doubles prices in Pittsburgh) and will need to talk shop with the guy I’m going with. But, can’t beat baseball on a Saturday night.

cjdubbya

Wife splurged for fourth-row behind the Cubs’ dugout (section 9) – neat to think that another member of Bleacher Nation will be in the crowd. Are the fireworks worth it to stick around?

mybrettjacksonhat

Those are good seats. Fireworks are ok. If you stay for the end of the game it is not a big deal to stay a bit longer and see them. I’ve often had my kids on fireworks night so we leave early as they’re pretty tired and don’t love the noise. I’ll probably stay tonight. Not many Cub fans in attendance last night. Usually a ton. Most of the time I’ve lived here we usually come close to outnumbering Pirate fans by the end of the year. Things have changed over the last 2 years.

Canadian Cubs Fan

Castro get his 500th hit tonight, joining a list of 27 other guys with pretty famous names to do it before turnin 22. Only other active is ARod. Since his callipygian, Starlin has the most hits in the National League, 10 more than Braun.

Canadian Cubs Fan

callipygian = call up. Fat fingers on iPhone fail!

Nomar’s Left Glove

callipygian = Very funny slip on your part. Google the meaning of the word. I am under the assumption that Starlin does not reciprocate, CCF, but he finds you quite nice. Sorry.

Harry Ramirez

23

cubsin

Listened to part of the game on SiriusXM (Pirates broadcast). When Sappelt scored, they said the OF booted the ball,and at least gave me the impression that Sappelt would have stopped at third otherwise. How was that not the Bucs’ eighth error?

calicubsfan007

I am just psyched we overcame the AJ Burnett dilemma. I was getting pretty pissed that we sucked against an inconsistent so-so pitcher.

Stinky Pete

Can I point out that it says both Burnett and Takahashi gave up 3 earned runs, yet there are only 3 earned runs in the totals?

fester30

Just to put it to rest, I looked up several other box scores. Burnett and Takahashi gave up 3 ER. The totals in the box score above are incorrect. Somebody either added incorrectly or fat-fingered the numbers.

DocPeterWimsey

well, what is another error where this game is concerned?

I often think that people put way too much emphasis on errors. This game was an exception: but this game also was exceptional.

Timmy

Soriano will be traded this off-season for a 16th round pick

http://www.bleachernation.com Luke

With the exception of a bare handful of bonus round picks after the first and second round, draft picks can’t be traded.

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